Orion® TeleTrack™ altazimuth
tracking mount
SCS Astro Ltd. — +44 (0)1823 665510 — £225
There are a considerable number of observers looking for a mount
suitable for a grab-and-go 'scope that a) isn't an equatorial and
b) isn't a GoTo. The reasons being that an equatorial can be a
chore to align for quick-look sessions, and not everyone's wild
about computer-controlled mounts — even if prices of user-friendly,
entry-level models have fallen to such lows that they're
irresistible to novices and experienced observers alike.
Fortunately, there are a some good altazimuth mounts equipped with
slow motion controls around such as the Vixen Porta (see my January
2006 review in
the archive), but motorised versions are
thin on the ground.
Seeing that there was a niche to fill, American-based Orion
Telescopes & Binoculars have recently released the TeleTrack.
This is a rather ingenious motorised altazimuth mount that has a
few tricks up its sleeve. The unit is robust with a black cast
alloy body with silver plastic trim that's far more stable than its
diminutive stature (28x21x12cm) might lead you to believe. It also
comes with its own extendible photo-style tripod ranging in height
from 51 to 138cm, but if you have your own heavy-duty tripod with a
3/8"-16 fitting then this would be a better proposition for use
with most spotting 'scopes. Powered by eight internal AA batteries
or an external 12 volt power pack, a nine-button hand controller
gives access to all the built-in functions.
In its basic mode of operation you can slew the mount in altitude
and azimuth at three different rates — Guide, Slow and Fast. These
equate to 32x, 64x and 800x sidereal rate, respectively (800x
sidereal = 3.33 degrees/second). The clever feature of the
TeleTrack is its astronomical tracking that may be invoked by
pressing the Guide and Slow buttons simultaneously. Before you can
do this, however, the mount has to know your latitude. This is a
achieved by a simple setup process that requires you to set an
index mark against a built-in scale that doubles as an altitude
indicator. The latitude setting is remembered even when you power
off, so as long as you power up with the 'scope tube level facing
north and the azimuth axis horizontal (a built-in bubble level
helps here), you're ready to go.
The TeleTrack can handle an 80mm short tube refractor quite easily
(the manual cautions against using tube assemblies heavier than 9kg
or longer than 38cm), but you may not be able to slew all the way
up to the zenith. The mount has a built-in Vixen-style dovetail
clamp to hold the OTA, but comes with an L-bracket equipped with a
1/4"-20 adapter for smaller instruments.
The TeleTrack also doubles as a digital SLR camera platform that
can slew to a predetermined sequence of so-called cruise points and
automatically take an exposure with Canon-compatible units (the
camera cable is also supplied). With a few minor caveats the
TeleTrack does work as described. You can read my in-depth review
by picking up a copy of
Astronomy Now's February 2007 issue, or buy it
directly from SCS Astro Ltd. by
clicking
here.
